1

Chameleon

Ghost

THE

andTHE

Paul Renner & Morris Fuller Benton

a b c d e f g h i j k l m no p q r s t u v w x y zabc defghijklmnopqrstuvw xyzabcdefghi jklmnop q r s t u v w x y zabcdefghi jklmnopq r s t u vwx yz

3

a b c d e f g h i j k l m no p q r s t u v w x y zabc defghijklmnopqrstuvw xyzabcdefghi jklmnop q r s t u v w x y zabcdefghi jklmnopq r s t u vwx yz

“We ask of a type distinctness, clarity and the

omitting of all superfluous elements.

Thus we reach the

demand of a

geometrical form structure.”

Paul Renner

5

there was a need to go to a new direction in design and typography. Technology were

advancing and decorative typography weren’t interesting anymore. Two modern typographers

became an influence to their country and then to the world with their contributions but lived

on separate side of the world.

graphic designer, painter, and teacher who lived

in Germany. He made his mark in typography

with his typeface, Futura. Futura is a geometric

sans-serif typeface released in 1927. It became a

cornerstone of the New Typography in the 1920’s

and 30’s. Many geometrically constructed sans-

serif typefaces were being designed in the 20th

Century but Futura stood out in Germany.

Morris Fuller Benton, an American typeface

who revolutionize the type industry with his

contribution of over 200 typefaces. He designed

original typefaces such as Franklin Gothic and

Bank Gothic. He also revived historic typefaces

such as Bodoni and Cheltenham. He grew up

in print and typography because of his father

and that helped me become a well-rounded

typograper. Both typographer lived and did

their work around the same time period but in

different places. Their typefaces are still loved a

century later and continue to be used today.

Paul Renner, a German typographer,

Morris Fuller Benton, an American type designer

Between the 19th Century transitioning into the 20th Century,

7

Inspired by the theories of the Bauhaus, Futura’s letter form is based on geometric shapes and agree with the idea of form over function. Renner wanted balance between lowercase and capital letters.

abcdefghijklnopqr s t uvwxyz123456789

They believed there is more to typography than

In the time of the early 20th Century, the time of machinery

where manufacturing is what matters the most. Renner joined

the Deutscher Werkbund(German Work Federation) in 1910. At

Deutscher Werkbund, Renner created a new set of guidelines for

good book design. Renner befriended a German typographer named

Jan Tschicold who was a key participant in the heated ideological

and artistic debates during the industrialization of Germany.

Paul Renner lived during the time of war. Germany was involve with World War II and the Nazi party was reigning over the

country. Germany under went but this did not discourage Renner. Renner began his career as a commissioned artist. He

painted landscapes for various organizations. He was trained as an artist but he realized his desire to bring industry and

art together to become a creative and visually appealing product. This product were things that served a particular role to

ease someone’s task.

9

Renner released Futura in 1927, which

became popular for text and large display

compositions. Futura was well adored

because it had a sense of elegance and

commanding visual power.

They believed there is more to typography than symmetrical columns

and

very orderly type layouts.

WWII . Deutscher Werkbund . Bauhaus . New Typography

They believed there is more to typography

than symmetrical columns and very orderly

serif layouts. Renner’s typeface Futura is

what connected him to the Bauhaus school

and New Typography movement.

During the 1920’s and 1930’s, Renner was not involve with any specific

movements but Renner’s ideology and theories toward art and design were

coincidentally similar to the ideas and thoughts of the Bauhaus school and the

New Typography movement.

Benton wanted to take American typography out

of the Victorian era and shift to something more

serious where readability matters. That is what

motivated him to create Franklin Gothic and an

variant for Century.

abcdefghijklnopqrs tuvwx y z 1 2 3456789

11

Franklin Gothic

might as well be called

the head of

modern American gothics.

13

The Benton family originated from Milwaukee, Lake Michigan area where Linn Boyd

Benton owned his type foundry before relocating to New York. Morris Fuller Benton

was raised in the print and type industry. Benton was an only child and Boyd would

show Benton his printing press. Boyd learned how to set type at the age of eleven

with the help of his father, so Benton spent some of the years of his youth working at

his own printing press in the family home in Milwaukee.

By the age of eleven, Morris designed and

printed admission tickets for children’s music

classes, tickets for neighborhood shows,

receipts for work he did for his father, and

booklets. In 1892, Morris entered and attend

Cornell University in New York.

During the same year, twenty-three

American type foundries, which included

Moriss’s father foundry, combined and

form the American Type Founders or

ATF in New York. Benton graduated

in 1896 from Cornell University with

a degree in mechanical engineering.

He studied and pursue a degree in

mechanical engineering because he felt

he wasn’t suited for it.

A few months after Benton’s

graduation, he became his father

assistant at the American Type

Founders, where he learned about

typefaces. Morris did not intend

to follow his father’s footstep and

work in the type foundry business.

In 1900, Benton became the

American Type Founders Chief

type designer.

Destined To Work In Type

Son of a Priest, Paul RennerRenner was a son of a strict priest, so he grew up in an environment with strict Christian ethic. This may have influence his aesthetic of design and intellectual skills to help shape new life in both material and spiritual forms. Renner desired to influence culture by designing, writing, and teacher. Futura was developed in reaction to the cultural, economic, political, and social instability.

He did not believe that Futura was solely an expression of his “particular artistic intent,” but served his era’s voice. Futura had no decoration or hand written letters qualities to its characters. Instead, the harmonies of Roman capitals are used to define the proportions of European minuscule letters.

15

Son of a Priest, Paul Renner

Futura formed on the characters that marked the origin of European scripts and would serve to diminish the variety of fonts required for printing. The general attitude toward Futura as an artifact of European design of the first half of the twentieth century.

Futura sits in European traditions with it harmonious, uniformity qualities. Futura follows the basic geometric proportions of no weight stresses, no serifs, and features long ascenders and descenders, which make it more elegant.

Type design is in

his blood.

He follows his

father footstep into

the type industry.

17

The advertising and publishing business were enormous, traditional printing shops with

type foundries and letterpress were in demand. Much of the type used in advertising and

publishing came from Europe. Since the advancement of typesetting, more and more

American foundries gain business. He lived in the revolutionary age of type manufacturing

where machine were mechanizing type. Benton took advantage of ATF library.

Son of a Type Designer

During his design process of a modern

typeface, Benton would conduct extensive

research. He firmly believed that through

research and gathering all the background

information for a new typeface was essential

to the designer’s job.

He would diligently research for new

typeface ideas. He spent a lot of time in the

library and it is in the library, Benton drew

inspirations. He begin with studying the

previous historic typefaces at American

Type Founders typographical library.

Benton studied original type

founder’s specimen sheets and

reads books that included the

printed typefaces in a wide

variety of ways. All of Benton

resources would be located in

the American Type Founders

library and museum.

Renner did not want to go to the

direction of grotesk typefaces while

making Futura but later in 1930,

Renner release Plak, a typeface with

grotesk elements.

From Architype to SteileArchitype Renner was another set of geometric sans-serif typeface that included the experimental alternated characters that were meant to be included with Futura and was the original concept for Futura.

The alternate characters were drawn for lowercase a, g, and r, some punctuation, and uppercase characters for German accents.

19

From Architype to Steile Renner is famous and known for Futura but his other typefaces such as Architype Renner, Plak, Ballade, Renner Antiqua, and Steile Futura.

Grotesk typefaces adapted best for large-size posters.

Renner was always interested in gothic and roman typefaces

but advocated more from sans serif until his dismissal from

Mieisterschule, then his interest returned.

Plak was produced as wooden letter forms, with type sizes from 72 point to 624 point. It

was a poster type and was exclusively available in bold weights but in three variants. The

widest variant bears some resemblance and similarities for the geometric forms of Futura

but the condensed variants, the letters become to be more grotesk-like.

Renner’s gothic typeface, Ballade is inspired by the calligraphic

traditions, and express the rationalized letter forms of other 1930’s gothic

typefaces. Renner roman typeface design, Renner Antiqua was based

on his own formal writing. Both typefaces came from Renner desire to

discover a middle-ground between gothic and roman type through an

exploration of shared basis through writings with a broad pen.

Renner was always in gothic

and roman typefaces but he

was a more of an advocate for

sans-serif until his dismissal

from the Meisterschule, then

his interested returned.

Of Renner’s surviving

sketches and

calligraphy, that

dated after 1933

were over half gothic work.

21

Then came along Steile Futura, originally named Renner Grotesk. It was

renamed, so it could be related to the Futura family. Steile spur from

Renner’s attempt to design what he called a grotesk typeface. A type that

was keen to nineteenth-century sans-serifs.

abcde fgh i j klmnopq r s t uv w x y z A B CD E F G H I J K LM N O P Q R STUVWXYZ

Steile translate to upright

or steep and there was

a distinct vertical stress

in Steile Futura’s narrow

letters. The progress on this

typeface was very slow due

to Renner’s failing health

which resulted in a heart

attack in 1948. Renner

recovered and released

Steile in 1952. In Munich

1956, Renner passed away.

Steile Futura once named Renner Grotesk

Franklin Gothic was one of Benton first project

after he became head of the American Type

Founders type design department.

23

Morris Fuller Benton contributed

over 200 typefaces which were

original and other revivals of

historic typefaces.

25

An original typeface by Benton was Franklin Gothic. Franklin Gothic is a sans-serif typeface

released in the early 20th Century. It came to be from research for typographic

originality and this gothic typeface became one of the most popular gothic typefaces

in American tpye design and refains an international reputation to this day. Franklin

Gothic was one of Benton first project after he became head of the American Type

Founders type design department.

The Changer of American Type Design

Even though the foundry already had a

variety of gothic typefaces, Benton continue

to create his cut of a gothic typeface. He

created the designs in 1902 and released the

typeface in 1905. Franklin Gothic retained but

refined features of 19th Century types such as

slight overall narrowness. There is a reduction

of line thickness at the junction of stems bowls,

and at the head and foot of the circular letters.

There are two bowls in the lowercase g

which many 20th Century sans-serif have

done way with. Franklin Gothic offered a wide

variants of weights such as italics, condensed,

and extra condensed. It has a comfortable

letterfit, which benefit, from increasing the

tracking in their heavier weights and condensed

fonts. Franklin Gothic has a large x-height

compares to other serif typefaces. This give

Franklin Gothic good legibility in small sizes.

It makes an excellent type for

children’s books to advertisement.

Franklin work wonders as a display

face, offering many variant weights.

In large scale, it creates strong

graphic visuals with clarity and warm

characteristic, which were missing

from some 20th Century sans-serifs.

Benton revived and added more to

typefaces that were already designed.

Century was a typeface designed by his father for Century

magazine. Benton developed an additional 18 variants for

Century. The most successful Century face was Century

Schoolbook. It is highly adored because of its excellent

readability. Schoolbook was a clean-cut and well-defined.

It had no hairlines but was not too bold. It bears deep

junctures, full descenders, large counters, and wide serifs.

Schoolbook had this softness and clarity. Even against

illustrations in children’s book, Schoolbook was readable.

a b c d e f g h i j k ln o p q r s t u v wx y z

27

Bank Gothic is a rectilinear geometric sans-serif

released in 1930. The typeface is an exploration of

geometric forms bearing some elements of late-

nineteenth engraving typefaces. This typeface was

made almost a century ago and is still used today

because of its modernist features. Many motion

pictures used Bank Gothic for type in trailers and

to use as their logotype. Benton is not recognized

enough because he was a man who did not want to

vocalize his work.

a b c d e f g hi j k l n o p q rstuvwxyz

Futura’s lack of stroke weight variation,

had geometric proportions of

Roman capitals, and

tall ascenders...

29

Futura’s lack of stroke weight variation, had

geometric proportions of Roman capitals,

and tall ascenders which distinguish it from

other contemporary typefaces. Futura’s

ascenders in lower-case characters such as

letter ‘h’ are taller that the upper-case letters.

Since the capitals are smaller on the type

body and x-height is related to capital height,

the overall visual size of the typeface

is reduced and additional white space

introduced between the lines of type.

Renner’s typeface effected the German

Standard Baseline. He knew that moving

the standard baseline was unthinkable.

This would make the German foundry

industry re-tool and force the printers

re-equip themselves with type.

During the early 20th Century, the printing and type foundry business were the biggest thing

in technology. Renner sought technology to purify type design. Futura was a typeface reflecting

the machine age and meant to be used for industry. Futura made an impact in printing. It was

a new departure for the design of letters for printing.

Challenging Type Design

Since there was no room below the

baseline, Renner suggested that the

longer descenders common in old-

style typefaces could be maintained if

the designers and foundries would not

enlarge the letters to fill the space

above the baseline.

Benton lived in a world where type manufacturing

revolutionize because of Linotye, Monotype

composers, and punch-cutting machine. His father

is the creator of the matrix-cutting machine

and pantographic punch-cutting machine. Their

machine revolutionized the production of typefaces.

Challenging Type Usage

31

The matrix, fixed in a type mold, was then used

to cast individual types, again wrong-reading

so that they would appear right-reading when

printed. As the 20th Century began, increasing

numbers of typefaces appeared that were

drawn by type designers but produced by

separate punch cutters. This trend continued

through several technological developments.

His typefaces became very valuable in print and

advertisement. He would do a extensive research

on what’s the best typeface for books and what

display face would look good in large scale.

B

FuturaandFranklin Gothic

remain being popular typefaces today

33

Renner and Benton, lived in two different sides of the world were making an impact

in print and industry desiring typefaces that will never go out of date. Renner wanted to

find a common ground between type classifications. Benton had all the types he needed

but continue to create his own.

Everlasting Type Designs

Futura provided the precise tool need

for professional designer and it became a

popular choice of type for text and display

composition. To this day, it is continued to

be used by advertising typographers, they

would use combinations of Futura Light

or Book with Futura Extra Bold because

it benefit the composition elegances and

provide visual power.. Benton revolutionized

type design of the twentieth century in

America. In the beginning of working at

American Type Foundry, people had little

faith of his compatibility. But he used

knowledge from technology in mechanical

engineering and infused it with type for

design. Renner could be remembered

because of the Bauhaus or the New

Typography but stands in his own category

for his revolution in type design. Benton did

not have a degree or studied typography at

the university but his hard work to learn the

historic of typefaces did not go unnoticed

because all of his typefaces still remain.

Futura is an innovator of its time and

the most successful commercial

German type design from it era.

Futura was a typeface that provoke

modern ideas rather than detonating

the revival of previous designs.

Futura is an prime example of

its time and certainly the most

commercial successful German

typeface of its era.

Benton’s typefaces are used in every

sort of industries. He showed much

care to the typefaces through his

research and the way he worked.

Early 20th Century American and

European typography had two

typographers who still have a great

reputation today in the 21th Century.

Futura and Franklin Gothic remain

popular typefaces today.

35

Citations

Christopher Burke, Paul Renner: The Art of Typography, 1998, Princeton Architectural Press, Print

Charles Leonard, Paul Renner and Futura - The Effects of Culture, Technology, and Social Continuity on the Design of Type for Printing, 2008, VDM Publishing, Print

Dodd, Robin. From Gutenberg to Opentype: An Illustrated History of Type From the Earliest Letterforms to the Latest Digital Fonts. 2006, Vancouver: Hartley & Marks. Print

Patricia A. Cost, “Linn Boyd Benton, Morris Fuller Benton, and Typemaking at ATF.” Scribd. 2011, Web.

William Berkson, Typophile.com, 2005, Nov 06, 2012, Web

The Font Bureau Inc., Morris Fuller Benton, N/A Year, Nov 6, 2012. Web

Photo Credits

Page 1 Linotype.com

Page 4 Flickr Nick Sherman

Page 8 Flickr, Unkē E

Page 10 Flickr, Brendan Dawes

Page 12 Photographer, ATF

Page 14 Flickr, Photojordi

Page 16 Photographer, Scott Lowe

Page 18 - 21 Christopher Burke book

Page 22 Letter Preservation

Page 20 to 22 Ebay

Page 24 Etsy.com

Page 26 - 29 Ebay.com

Page 30 Flickr, Kyle Van Horn

Page 32 Ebay.com

Page 33 N/A

Page 36 Ebay.com

37

Type Used

Futurar Book, Medium, Bold, Heavy.

Steile Futura. Plak.

ITC Century Light, Book, Ultra.

ITC Franklin Gothic Book, Medium, Demi,

Heavy. Bank Gothic. Cheltenham News Gothic

Name: Raksa Yin

Course: Typography III

Faculty: Francheska Guerrero

abcdefghi jk lmnop q r s t u v w x y z

a b c d e f g h i j k l m no p q r s t u v w x y za b c d e f g h i j k l m nop q r s t u v w x y z

a b c d e f g h i j k l m no p q r s t u v w x y z

39

abcdefghi jk lmnop q r s t u v w x y z

a b c d e f g h i j k l m no p q r s t u v w x y za b c d e f g h i j k l m nop q r s t u v w x y z

a b c d e f g h i j k l m no p q r s t u v w x y z